The Strongest Friendship
by Meg11cat
Summary: Seven missing moments over seven years of friendship for Harry and Hermione. Nod toward Ron and Hermione; Harry and Ginny. Ron and Ginny don't make actual appearances in this multiple moment fic. Please R
1. November 1st

**J K Rowling owns Harry Potter. I own the fact that I am a shameless FanGirl. **

**I was inspired by the writer HalfASlug. If you haven't read their stories and especially if R/Hr are your favorite couple, go to their profile and read, read, read the night away. **

_ A/N -The IDEA: Lost moments in time where Harry and Hermione speak in context of friendship, their crushes and growing up. I hope to have 7 of them, one for each year. Some of these are going to be short. I will upload one at a time but each moment is complete. I hope to have them up pretty quick but you know, I have a test in a couple days so we will see about that._

* * *

November 1st.

"Good morning Hermione." Harry said quietly as he spotted her in the common room the next morning.

"Oh. Good morning Harry. Did you sleep well?"

"Sure. Knocking out a troll tends to take your energy I guess." Harry said with a smile.

Hermione smiled back at him. She couldn't think how to express in words how grateful she was to him and Ron.

"Yeah. I guess it does. ...Thank you, Harry. You saved my life."

"Hermione, you don't have to thank me. I am just glad that you are okay. You are ...okay, right?"

"Yeah. I am okay. I promise."

"Good. Listen, Hermione. I want to say sorry."

"What? Why?"

"Well because I was so mean to you before - calling you a know-it-all and all that. Well I am sorry. You helped me with that essay the other day and if you weren't a quote-unquote 'know-it-all' I wouldn't have gotten a decent mark on it."

Harry looked at his feet as he said this to her. He was embarrassed to know that in those moments of teasing the girl who stood in front of him, he was no better than Dudley. He felt sick at the thought.

"Harry, you have nothing to apologize about. All is forgiven. Like I told McGonagall last night, without you I would probably be dead."

And then out of nowhere, Hermione hugged Harry for the first time. This was a new feeling for Harry. He had never had any friends before coming to Hogwarts. He was never shown any affection at the Dursleys. He decided that this was a good feeling and hugged Hermione back, hoping that it would be the first of many to come.


	2. On the Train

**J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and I know a lawyer who owns a Gryffindor scarf. **

* * *

On the Train

Ron got up to use the loo and left Harry and Hermione on their own in the compartment. Harry was sad to be going home but thought that after just a few weeks, he had the Burrow to look forward too.

"I am really glad you are okay Hermione." Harry said, looking at his best female friend. After experiencing classes and studying without her help, he again found a new appreciation for his brainy friend.

"I am really glad that you figured it out and saved Ginny." Hermione said.  
She couldn't really remember anything after leaving the library with her pocket mirror but Madam Promfry had told her that Harry had come to see her every chance he got. She was also really impressed with all the class notes he took for her. She knew that History of Magic was nearly impossible for him to stay awake in. "Thanks for taking class notes for me by the way. They are really good, you know."

"Really? I didn't think they would be very useful to you. I've seen the way you take notes. I pale in comparison."  
"Harry, that is not true. You are a good student. You can apply yourself and do well when you want too." Even as she said this, she smiled at his sentiment.  
"Yeah, well..." Harry trailed off not finishing his sentence.  
After two years at Hogwarts, he still wasn't sure about what interested him most. Transfiguration was interesting enough, but it was really difficult for him and that made it one of his least favorite classes. He hated potions because of Snape. He napped most of the time in History of Magic, but had done his best for Hermione to stay awake and take notes. DADA was a joke this year, though he thought with a decent teacher, it could get better. All in all, he didn't think he had a favorite class, at least not this year. Hermione being absent had a lot to do with that in more ways than one.

Suddenly Harry thought about the end of the year feast and Hermione running in, hugging him and then Ron. No ... wait. She only shoke Ron's hand.  
"Hermione, why didn't you hug Ron when you came into the great hall last night?"  
Hermione face turned red, almost as red as Ron's hair. "Well, he and I don't always get along, do we?"  
"Yeah, well he was really upset when you got...um...petrified." Harry looked down at the last word. He didn't really know what to say to her about that. "Come on, you guys couldn't have had a row any time recently - what is the real reason?"  
While Hermione's face didn't really change color, she did relax a bit when Harry told her that Ron had been upset that she was not around. "I, uh... I guess he and I just aren't as close as you and I are. You know, both coming from muggle backgrounds.

But Harry knew she wasn't telling the exact truth. He knew her pretty well at this point, having spent two years with her in school and doing fun things on the grounds of Hogwarts. He decided to let it go for now, thinking he would figure out her real reason eventually.  
"Ok, Hermione, whatever you say."

Hermione looked up at Harry, confused and kind of put out that he wouldn't take her word. She sighed. He might know or be on his way to figuring it out. She was completely obvious about Lockhart. Perhaps she had been under a charm of his to be infatuated with him, as well as every other girl in school.  
At that moment, Ron came back into the compartment and sat down next to Hermione. She looked at Harry straight in the eye. Harry looked back at her and wordlessly the conversation was dropped.


End file.
